SUMTER COUNTY, Fla. – An appeals court overturned the perjury conviction of a former Sumter County commissioner, who was accused of giving a false statement to prosecutors during a Sunshine Law investigation.
A three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal issued a seven-page ruling ordering a circuit judge to vacate the conviction of Oren Miller.
The case stems from allegations that Miller violated the Sunshine Law by having phone conversations with another commissioner after getting elected in 2020.
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As part of an investigation by the State Attorney’s Office, Miller gave a sworn statement in October 2021 and was asked about phone calls with the other commissioner, Gary Search.
Thursday’s ruling said the perjury charge was based on a statement that Miller did not have telephone conversations with Search after January 2021.
But the appeals court said that Miller’s “entire statement indicates the calls stopped between January and March 2021 or ‘somewhere in there.’ Miller even goes as far to acknowledge phone calls in March 2021 by saying, ‘Yes, I promise you we had phone calls.’”
Also, the ruling said state law allowed Miller to correct or clarify his statement.
“Here, even if Miller was considered to have definitively and falsely stated that no calls occurred after January, his later answers corrected or clarified the uncertain timing of calls, including those made or received in February and March 2021,” said the ruling, written by Judge Adrian Soud and joined by Judges Harvey Jay and Paige Kilbane. “As a result, as a matter of law, Miller cannot be found guilty of perjury as charged in the information.”
The ruling said Miller spent 75 days in jail.
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